KatieLoeb

Bravo! Your croquembouche is positively perfect and professional. Your family is lucky to have your talents "in house". You should be very proud. Save those photos for your portfolio!

The reason their clam pie is so amazing is the obvious use of fresh clams. Delorenzo's uses canned clams, it makes quite a difference. ← This is true. The best clam pie ever is Pepe's. It's been 25 years since a bunch of my Penn roommates and I jumped into a Jeep and drove all the way to New Haven one afternoon to prove this point. (It seemed like a good idea at the time) But Trenton is a heck of a lot closer to home and even the canned clam pies are pretty damned good!

My earlier example of the travel expenses for the head wine buyer at a large wine outlet like Total Wine is probably a bad example, in retrospect. Actually a buyer for a private retail outlet could just sit on his ass behind a desk and wait for all the wine reps to bring him samples of stuff, so other than attending regional tasting events (also sponsored by those same wine salespeople) he wouldn't have to travel much at all. Since I understand how the workings of the PLCB go from my days of ordering the wine for restaurants I'll see if I can explain this better. The SLO (Special Liquor Order) products are warehoused by the various wine and spirits purveyors that represent those products. The "Listed" products are those which must be on the shelf in every one of the 600+ stores in the Commonwealth from Philly to Pittsburgh and are effectively the State's inventory. "Specialty" products are those which are purchased by the state in limited quantities and appear on the shelves at the "Specialty" and Outlet stores like the 12th & Chestnut Street store in downtown Philly or the Outlet stores on Delaware Avenue or at Franklin Mills Mall. These are the items that Mr. Newman was giving his most personal attention and expertise to. There were no salespeople that would come calling and begging him to place an order for 800 cases of Burgess Cabernet. They wouldn't have that at their disposal even if in their dreams he could place such an order with them. These were deals he worked out on his own. And he went directly to the source to do that. These trips he made to Napa and Italy and France were direct negotiations with the wineries. That's how he could cut those amazing deals and pass along the savings to us lowly consumers. It costs money to fly the plane to wherever and then to stay there for a week as well as feed oneself or possibly entertain the winery owners or directors of sales. The amount of money that was spent to secure that inventory and the HUGE profits that came from the sale of it is a pittance. By anyone's standards. This is a complete non-story and the Inquirer should check with their legal department on the definitions of libel and defamation. I can't wait for someone to uncover the nefarious dealings that went into that "news" story. If anyone has checked back to the article the comments are overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. Newman and his accomplishments and display a high level of public disgust with the politics. So has anyone figured out yet whom we direct our outrage toward to continue the hearings and get some real digging happening? How about the other members of the LCB board? What about their travel expenses? What about the Governor's travel expenses? Who do we send our signatures to?

What wine goes with (his) Jello pudding pops? ← I'd have suggested the Brachetto di Acqui with the chocolate ones, but alas, Mr. Cosby doesn't drink! I was taking care of his guests, two young ladies, one of whom was his daughter and the other one of her friends. I found some wines by the glass to suit them after the one young lady was sadly disappointed that we only had RED zinfandel. I got her to drink some riesling and her more wine adventurous friend (the daughter) a glass of a big chardonnay if I recall correctly.

I played sommeliere for Bill Cosby once. Does that count?

Ha! Great minds truly do think alike...

The bitters sound really good John. Should the beta drink be a martini? I'd think that might work nicely to best showcase the flavor of the bitters.

Bruce: Can you share the shrimp soup recipe? The fact that it's WW friendly is quite appealing, and I find that soups really fill me up. Thanks!

Great minds think alike, my friend... edited to add: And I also thought the Lancaster Red was delicious and a screaming bargain at $19.99.

A couple of weeks ago I threw together a whole wheat angel hair pasta dish that contained minced garlic toasted in some good olive oil, chopped fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped spinach, grated smoked gouda, a bit of grated parmesan, some of the pasta water and a bit of white wine. Delicious and incredibly easy.

Re: The Lancaster Red. Mark Squires knows a hell of a lot better than to recork and refrigerate wine until the third day. Of course it was horrible by then. I'd have been more impressed if he'd transferred the leftover wine to a half bottle so there was less surface area exposed. Or having made his initial observation about the wine not being good on "Day One" perhaps tried decanting it? That would have been revolutionary. All of his criticisms go back to the MSRP argument upthread. NO ONE pays MSRP in any industry. In defense of the Lancaster Red it's made by some of the best folks in the business, with some of the finest Alexander Valley grapes. The winery's own website lists the wine at $65, so I presume that's what one would pay at the source. I think Mr. Squires has an axe to grind. Again, if it isn't to your taste, don't buy it anymore. But trying to quantify something as subjective as taste and then trying to convince everyone that they're getting ripped off seems a bit mean spirited to me. But I guess that's what "sells" e-zines, huh?

You might be better off checking with your local restaurant supply store. Even if they don't have exactly what you want in stock, they will undoubtedly have catalogs from their suppliers that would allow you to order what you want. They might even be able to get samples in first if you were purchasing enough. Another tactic might be to ask the manager of a restaurant whose glassware you admire if you could purchase a dozen glasses from them next time they place an order. Restaurants are forever ordering glasses, believe me. That way you'll have seen and felt the glasses in hand before purchasing.

OK folks. We're getting snarky again. I will lock the topic if we don't play nice and stop throwing sand around, OK? If you're tired of reading it then simply STOP. Easy solution. Well thought out and articulate posts are welcome to stay and be added.

Many of the finest restaurants in Vienna have this dish on their menu. Every Oma has her own version. Think of this as Austrian pot roast. Comes out on a big platter and you serve the meat with applesauce laced with freshly grated horseradish on the side. A bowl for the broth and veggie bits is good on the side as well, but that's just my preference. Delicious and simple stuff. A good recipe can be found HERE.

That's what I get for never having made one. I googled the cocktail and the first two recipes I saw were the one I quoted. I figured if it was the same in two sources it must be right. I like your proportions better. As I recall, the B&S I tasted at Pegu had a distinctly "tequila sunrise" flavor to it that could only come from a higher proportion of cherry brandy with the OJ.

Perhaps serving a melon balled scoop of the gelatinous mixture atop a freshly shucked oyster could be attractive and tasty? I like the idea of maybe having shrimp cocktail or a blob of jumbo lump crabmeat with this mixture as well. It might serve better if it were poured into a shallow square pan and then cut into little cubes. It would be easier to spoon up out of an attractive vessel (martini glass, perhaps?) and serve other ingredients atop or on the side.

This is a fascinating discussion. Can we please remain civil and on topic? I'd hate to have to shut down what is a very interesting discussion that can go on and track the progress of this proposal through City Council. My own personal view is if there's no damage to the "free will" of the consumer by removing what is known to be unhealthful ingredient, I don't have a problem with it. This isn't as simple as liquor and cigarettes which are legal if you're old enough to buy them. We're faced with an unprecedented health crisis in this country. Today's children may be the first generation in several centuries to have a life expectancy shorter than their parents. Obesity rates, diabetes and heart disease are rising exponentially. If there's scientific proof that transfats are at least partially responsible for it, then even my normally libertarian self can say I expect my government to protect me from it, in the same way they protect me from lead paint and asbestos, whether that be by better labelling conventions or by removing it entirely where it's not necessary. Better cafeteria food choices, mandated physical education and nutritional education in schools is a damned good start too.

Blood & Sand 3/4 oz Scotch whisky 3/4 oz rosso vermouth 1/4 oz cherry brandy 1 1/2 oz orange juice Shake over ice cubes, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and serve. I'm not a big fan of scotch and I even like these.

Their answers to the same questions posed to Mr. Newman could be very enlightening. Especially since their "contributions" to the state revenue as a result of their travels remains questionable at best.

I have it on good authority that the other two members of the board have been doing exactly that for their tenures. Showing up every two weeks for a 15 minute meeting and going on their merry way to cash their checks at the bank. If Mr. Newman was racking up the big travel time and travel bills (and no one seems to be contesting that he did), where did his cohorts expenses come from? And more importantly, why the hell is no one questioning THAT??? I'd be curious to see what the main wine buyer for a large chain like Total Wine, Trader Joe's or Canal's racks up in annual travel expenses by comparison with the Chairman of the PLCB. I think it could be an interesting comparison.

Exactly. I disagree strongly as well. And all the ink that the former Chairman got as Man of the Year in Wine Enthusiast, etc. made this hapless state look like less of the backwater it had always been and more like a favorable retail environment for wineries to sell their products to. That didn't benefit him, that benefitted the rest of us. I've had the pleasure of sitting and talking to Mr. Newman about this issue both before and after his resignation, most recently just earlier this week. I assure you that he is as sincere as they come when talking about his personal integrity and why he couldn't just sit back and roll over when the higher ups slipped Conti's job in with no foreplay. And I was looking him right in the eyes when he said it. He's the real deal. He neither needed the money nor the "fame". It was and always would have been about his passion for the job. And that is a damned shame for all of us.

Having now read the entire article it's even clearer to me that this is a total non-story and a complete mudslinging. $45K over three years is not an outrageous amount of spending for travel considering what the ROI was. The trip to Napa for one week cost less than my three days there, and I didn't bring any money into the state coffers for going. It seems like Mr. Goldsmith has a lot more 'splainin to do regarding his expenses than Mr. Newman does. And he's still on the board, is he not? Mr. Stapleton has family and friends in Camp Hill he could have stayed with for free. Why isn't anyone questioning their integrity?

Whoa! Fee's makes Lemon Bitters? I absolutely love their Peach bitters so I'm going to have to check this out! edited to add: I just looked on the Fee Brother's site and only see the Old Fashioned, Orange, Peach and Mint bitters. I've had all the rest and they're delicious except for the Mint Bitters. Those taste like spoiled toothpaste.

I had no doubt that the next step in attempting to justify the coronation of Mr. Conti would be an attempt to smear Mr. Newman by some selective, out of context spreadsheet reading. As one who understands how to read a spreadsheet, I have a lot more confidence in the examples cited by Mr. Newman during his Senate testimony than I do in the "fuzzy math" of his detractors. Has everyone forgotten that no one before Mr. Newman was even making these buying trips to California and Italy? How about a Return on Investment calculation of the revenue generated by the cost of the tickets and hotel stay? Governor Rendell and the other two LCB members that voted to railroad Mr. Conti's appointment have strapped on their tap shoes and are dancing as fast as they can. I hope the public/Senate doesn't buy this nonsense and asks for a full accounting of other's expenses for comparison's sake. What do the Governor's expenditures for hotels and restaurants look like?

Apple sorbet, perhaps? The cold liquid texture as well as the acidity of the apples might cleanse the palate more effectively. Just a thought...